Final book in the Dirty Series arc.
Former LAPD detective Cole McGinnis’s life nearly ended the day his police partner and best friend Ben Pirelli emptied his service weapon into Cole and his then-lover, Rick. Since Ben turned his gun on himself, Cole thought he’d never find out why Ben tried to destroy him.
Years later, Cole has stitched himself back together. Now a private investigator and in love with Jae-Min Kim, a Korean-American photographer he met on a previous case, Cole’s life is back on track—until he discovers Jeff Rollins, a disgraced cop and his first partner, has resurfaced and appears to be working on the wrong side of the law.
As much as Cole’s fought to put the past behind him, he’s soon tangled up in a web of lies, violence, and death. Jeff Rollins is not only trying to kill Cole’s loved ones, he is also scraping open old wounds and long-forgotten memories of the two men Cole loved and lost. Cole is sure Rollins knows why Ben ruined all their lives, but he isn’t looking for answers. Now Cole is caught in a cat-and-mouse game with a cold-blooded killer with the key to not only his past but his future.

My Review:

The entire Cole McGinnis series has been, not surprising based on the title, Cole McGinnis’ journey. He began the series in Dirty Kiss as an ex-LAPD cop, scarred, bitter and confused, still mourning the death of his lover Rick. The confusion Cole feels is due to the manner of Rick’s death. Rick was killed by Cole’s LAPD partner Ben, who also shot Cole and then ate his own gun.

So the man Cole thought of as a brother shot him and killed the man he loved before killing himself. And Cole, surviving but grief-stricken and wounded, has no idea why. The lack of that “why” haunts Cole though the entire series, as he moves from broken to standing tall, as he falls in love again, as he gathers a family around himself that is a mix of the best parts of his family-of-birth and the family-of-choice that bonds to him and his lover Kim Jae-Min.

But Cole is still looking for that why. Even when Ben’s widow jumps out of the shadows in an attempt to punish Cole for surviving when Ben died (in Dirty Deeds) Cole still has no clue why Ben tipped all their lives into the trash.

In Dirty Heart, Cole finally, finally gets the answers. He gets closure. And so do we.

But nothing for Cole has ever come easy, and this story is no exception.

It all starts with a case. As it usually does. Cole’s brother Mike owns a security company, and one of Mike’s clients keeps getting shot at. His client is an important man in the LA Korean business community, and has more than a few enemies, along with an estranged wife. But Mike’s client is the brother of one of Jae-Min’s mentors, so it also loops back to Cole.

As does the identity of the shooter. The would-be assassin is also an ex-LAPD cop, and he was Cole’s first partner. That is, until Rollins resigned in a huff over a few days desk duty after a very righteous shoot.

Then Rollins shoots Mike, and Cole finds himself holding his brother’s life together, and stuck with the conclusion that whatever this mess is, it’s all about him. Someone is out to get him. Again.

So Cole chases Rollins, and Rollins chases Cole by hunting down everyone Cole is close to. Cole finds himself frantically trying to keep all his “hostages to fortune” in safe places while hunting a crazed killer who wants to make Cole bleed before he kills him.

And it all circles back to Rick, Cole and Ben, and the night his life went into the crapper. Cole can’t move all the way forwards until he clears up that one broken question from his past. If he survives.

Escape Rating A: Dirty Heart is the awesome ending to a six-book series, so don’t start here. Start with Dirty Kiss and immerse yourself in Cole’s journey. It’s sometimes desperate and nearly always death-defying, but it makes the payoff in Dirty Heart so much sweeter.

I’ve loved this series from the beginning, and I couldn’t wait to see how things finally got wrapped up. So I read this book the afternoon I got the ARC, and finished about three hours later, absolutely mind-blown. But I had to promise not to reveal that final why in order to get my review copy, so if you are a fan of the series and desperately want to know, you’ll have to read the book for yourself.

And it is so worth it. One of the things that has made this series so marvelous is the way that Cole has found himself in the middle of his family without ever intending to create a family. Or fall in love again. Each person who has become part of his life, from his ex-cop buddy Bobby to his adopted mother (and office manager) Claudia to his lover Jae-Min brings Cole one step closer to healing. The banter between all of these very disparate characters brings a human-ness and a frequent chuckle to what is often a dark case.

I love the way that Cole takes care of Jae-Min’s little cat Neko. Neko is an everycat, and she so clearly has Cole wrapped around her little paw in a way that is just so very feline.

I will say that the case that gets solved in this book gave me a bit of a mixed reaction. The pacing was relentless. Cole is always one step behind a man who is gunning for him by proxy. He is always scrambling to either get out of the way of the next bullet, protect his loved ones, or visit someone in the hospital. His brain is toast half the time and he’s desperate all the time and he never catches a break.

The information about Cole’s past, the time before Rick and his early years in the LAPD, added even more layers to an already complex and interesting character.

But, while it was fantastic to finally get the answers about Ben’s actions long ago, I’ll admit that I never quite got why Rollins was gunning for Cole now, beyond him being a crazed psychopath. But I’ll also admit I rushed through that bit to get to the stuff I really wanted to know. An ending which completely satisfied.

If you’ve ever even dipped into the Cole McGinnis series, Dirty Heart is the heart-stopping, heart-breaking conclusion that you’ve been waiting for.